Metro Tunnel on the hunt for train drivers

More than 100 new train drivers will be hired to operate Melbourne’s new fleet of trains as a recruitment blitz begins in the lead up to the opening of the Metro Tunnel in 2025.

Up to 120 recruits will receive a mix of classroom, practical and on-the-job training in an intensive 44-week training program ahead of test trains running through the tunnels in the second half of next year.

Trainees will be accompanied by a driver while operating passenger services, ensuring they are ready to operate the 65 new and bigger trains that will run through the city-shaping Metro Tunnel.

Training on the project’s next-generation signalling system and the use of platform screen doors – a Victorian first – will also be included.

Recruitment for another 180 operational staff, including line and system controllers, signallers and signal maintenance technicians, has also started.

The new staff are needed as the construction on the project moves towards fit-out of the tunnels and stations, with track being laid through the new twin nine-kilometre tunnels from mid-2022.

Track laying will start at State Library Station, working towards the western tunnel entrance in Kensington. Workers will then return to State Library Station and move east through the Town Hall and Anzac stations, finishing at the eastern tunnel entrance in South Yarra.

The Metro Tunnel will slash travel times and create capacity for more than a half-a-million extra passengers each week in the peaks by creating a new end-to-end rail line from Sunbury in the west to Cranbourne/Pakenham in the south-east.

By running the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham services exclusively through the Metro Tunnel, it will free up room for more trains in the City Loop from other metropolitan lines.

The new Parkville Station, under construction below Grattan Street, will connect Melbourne’s world-class medical and education precinct to the rail network for the first time. 

Parkville Station – like all Metro Tunnel stations – will connect seamlessly to Melbourne Airport via the new airport rail line being built through Melbourne’s west, with passengers able to get from Parkville to the airport in just 24 minutes.   •

To apply to be a driver visit: bigbuild.vic.gov.au/metrotunnel